You Haven't Got Any Friends Tournament Recap

Yeah... I'm more than a little late on this one. You Haven't Got Any Friends was run back on the 27th of June, but this blogpost languished in my drafts for at least a week. Life can be busy you know, children to raise, terrain to paint, sleep to be slept. 

As we all bake in the repeating heatwaves that is 2026's British Summertime, let's step back just over a week, to a GBHL Teams Event in Brum.

You can check out my list here, at the end of my review of the Defenders of Helm's Deep. 

Game 1 - Vs Assault on Helm's Deep in Breakthrough

 

Having seen the teams and their lists ahead of time, this was the matchup I wanted, purely for the theme of it. My other options essentially boiled down to various flavours of goblin, or Shadows of Angmar. Fate served us well and I was granted the chance to fight many, many Berserkers. 

I went in confident. Berserkers are dangerous, but I could match them with Elves in combat and I vastly outshot the single crossbow-uruk. Uruk Captains could be dangerous also, but my own heroes outclassed them nicely. Of course, this confidence may have been my downfall.

With a mind for the objectives, I deployed decently far forwards, but split my warbands around two buildings, with Theoden in the centre and Aragorn and Haldir on the flanks. The Uruks deployed in a long line right at the front of their deployment zone and charged forwards, right at Theoden. Shooting knocked a couple off, with Aldor notably wounding one of the Captains with his first shot, paying for his points nicely and securing near-instant VPs.

I brought Aragorn around to the flank with his archers to target the back ranks, and this was answered with the Uruks staying just out of his charge range. This space they gave him was smart, completely zoning Aragorn out of the fight. Worse still, I intended to answer with a Heroic March to move him and his warband into range, but completely forgot to call it and lost a turn to the mistake.

There's not much else to note from here. Both armies ground each other down in combat, whilst I sent my Rohan Archers up the left flank to at least secure that objective. The Uruk Captains waited patiently whilst the Berserkers chopped through my troops, eventually jumping on and slaying Theoden and my banner.

Perhaps I needed Gandalf to arrive with reinforcements! The final score was 4-13 in favour of my opponent, but it was well fought and Cameron was great to play against.

Game 2 - Vs Thranduil's Halls in Hold Ground

 

Deploying first, I got Theoden down in the Southern corner, and with a bit of Might on Haldir, managed to deploy my full list in one large group, moving the full distance forward. In response, Legolas arrived directly in front of me on the Eastern board edge, just out of charge range. Thranduil would arrive on the 2nd turn, and after some deliberation, my opponent James Paterson chose to squeeze him in behind my list, perhaps in an attempt to pincer me. 

I'd given away priority this turn, so rather than engage directly, I shuffled most of my army westwards, setting up a new frontline with a building to anchor my northern flank, and using the southern flank to try and mob the end of the Mirkwood lines, avoiding Thranduil for now.  Aldor yet again does work on the cavalry, dehorsing a knight. 

The next turns basically amount to the main parts of each list fighting each other, whilst our archers tried to find shots at each other, myself targeting the cavalry and Legolas especially. I believe I did manage to remove a Fate or two from the prince, and eventually dehorsed or killed the cavalry.  On the combat front, Aragorn was unable to get at Thranduil, the Elf King carving through my troops with Heroic Combats. Even with both Theoden and later Haldir chopping towards him, James keeps  bodies in the way as I am just unable to grind through the elven heavy armour. 

Bogged down in combat, I'm unable to move towards the objective in the centre, as it is covered by Legolas and the Mirkwood archers, despite my attempts to creep around and shoot them down. Eventually, the game ends 3-13 to James. 

I think the mistake here was trying too hard to win the fight rather than the go for the objective. When I initially reformed my line, the smarter move should've been to leave a screening force and have Aragorn march the majority of my list to the objective. Rather than trying to pin down Thranduil, I would've been able to focus (if only briefly) on the less combat-oriented elements of Legolas' warband. 

That's my tunnel-vision again!

Game 3 - Pits of Dol Guldur in Destroy the Supplies

 

After lunch we got the inter-team face-off, with me being matched against fellow Brumdabad member Rik Jones. He'd brought an interesting all-mounted Pits force, and this ended up being the best game of the day, which was actually saying something. 

With me being massively outsped, I decided to deploy back, bunching around the central and left objectives. I left the right open on purpose, mainly just to avoid spreading out my force to much. The game starts with some top-tier shooting, de-warging several Orcs. Aldor yet again scores his points back by wounding the Captain, which is followed up with Haldir removing his Fate in the following turn.

With some luck, I get the first charge and push forward around a small ruin which does well to keep limit the wargs a little. Even with me taking the initiative, the mass dice from charging Hunter Orcs drops a fair number of my warriors, quickly levelling out the shooting damage. Rik naturally gets my rightmost supply, despite the token warriors I sent to dissuade this. In the melee, I have to focus to keep Theoden and my banner safe from Azog. 

On the front line, Aragorn kills the Captain and tries to start Heroic Combatting towards Azog, but he's just not quite dealing enough wounds, and there are more than enough Orcs and Wargs to keep getting in the way. I keep my archery focused on the left flank, trying to clear out the Orcs there so I can sneak warriors forwards to claim a supply, but I fall short on that goal.

In the centre, with enough of my troops dead, Rik steals priority with the Surprise Attack army rule and with a bit of clever movement, pounces on Theoden. I'm largely walled out of my efforts to save the king, and he is struck down in a single turn. The game ends to quartering, though I don't recall which force now!

We have to recheck the points once or twice due to a miscount (I didn't read the rules right!), but in the end the game comes down to an incredibly close 8-7 to myself. A great game against Rik, I hope we get a chance to play again as it was a real gentleman's game.

Game 4 - Vs Men of the West in Conquest of Champions

 
List was built prior to the recent FAQ, when Gwaihir was 150pts

I'd been dreading facing Men of the West, being one of the premier meta lists in the game right now. The list had a nice mix of Rohan and Gondor warriors, and even a Captain of Minas Tirith. Henri was at his first event, but was a great lad to play against and I hope he enjoyed the game and day as much as I did. 

Perhaps naively, we both selected our respective Aragorn as our champion. I get first move and target some warriors with Aragorn, electing to feed Elessar just one of mine. Mindful of Gwaihir getting Theoden or my banner, I set up to shield them, so the big bird simply jumps on that shielding force.

Terrain and deployment doesn't leave much space for shooting even with Haldir being deployed in the rear half, ridding me of one of my list's strengths. Instead I move my archers to try and find flank shots. 

Another grinding melee, with my army basically trapped between the actual men of the west and Gwaihir. The Eagle chomps through a ton of my models, hurling several Aragorn's way. I get lucky there on the wounds, with even one of the hurled warriors surviving against the odds. In the centre, both Aragorn kill a single model each before clashing for most of the game. Henri brings my Aragorn to a single wound first, but I'm able to return the favour soon after. 

We both manage to break each other's force around this point either, despite my struggle to kill Minas Tirith Warriors. Eventually, I get lucky and kill Elessar with Haldir, only for Gwaihir to kill Aragorn in the exact same turn. We play a bit longer, grinding against each other and Theoden eventually goes down before I can quarter him as he is able to shield to keep the game going. We eventually call the draw as one of Henri's teammates points out that neither of us can score any more points.

I'm not sure how I could've played this differently. Perhaps with the winning priority, a full retreat may have been the option, trying to draw out Gwaihir so he could be dealt with separately whilst I harassed the rest of the force with bow fire. Always easy to get focused on the combat, especially as I needed kills on Aragorn, and dealing with Elessar's Might stores was a priority too.

4-4

The End of the Day

As the dust settled, and the heat was finally peaking in the event hall, my team, Brumdabad 2, sat at 5th place overall. Considering the competition, that's really not bad and the four of us had done decently. What's more despite ending in 10th, the other half of the wider GBHL team, who had competed under There And Back Again: A Dwarf's Tale, had picked up best theme for their fantastic set up that involved Balin in two separate eras with dedicated foes for each. Rik, who I'd faced in the third round picked up Best Army for the day as well. 

A great showing for the lads all round!

I'm also nominating Aldor as my MVP for the day. Despite his low shoot value and Str 2 bow, his re-rolls made him incredibly consistent. He more than paid for himself every game and I would heartily recommend his inclusion in every list for Defenders. 

As it stands, my next event will be another teams one, this time BLANK, an 800 points GBHL90. I'll be taking Army of the White Hand to this one, which if that sounds a bit meta-chasy, just know I'm intending to bring a number of Dunlending Warriors, Vrasku and only four Crebain. 

That said, recent conversations plus a recent episode of Entmoot as me eyeing up the Grey Company again, and so whilst I don't yet know how many more events I will be able to attend this year, I'm almost 100% locked in on taking them every single time, just to see if I can get them to podium. So wish me luck, I may need it!

Defenders of Helm's Deep Army Review

The next tournament I'm attending will be a four-man teams event, with the players needing to divide up a War of the Ring era Good army, an WotR Evil army, a Hobbit-era Good army and an Evil Hobbit-era army. I can currently only field WotR lists, so after a bit of discussion I was nominated to run the WotR Good Army. I deliberated for while with various lists, considering Defenders of the Pelennor and Realms of Men primarily, alongside Grey Company which I've done well with earlier in the year.

Despite struggling somewhat in the meta, I can't avoid running Rohan, but I am very aware of the faction's weaknesses. This namely being average Defence and below-average Fight value, coupled with limited boosts to damage boost outside occasional list bonuses. They aren't bottom tier by any stretch, but they have been left a little behind in the meta.

Allies are the solution for some of this, and Rohan does have many options in its available lists. I've tried Gondorian support a few times via Pelennor and Realms of Men, and they work well, but thinking about potential lists I may have to face I figured I would go with Rohan's most elite allies; the Elves of Lorien.

Can't go wrong with some Elven firepower

Defenders of Helm's Deep is of course the movie-canon depiction of the battles of Helm's Deep, allowing you to field an alliance of Rohan infantry, armoured Galadhrim and the Three Hunters. It's a damn shame it doesn't retain cavalry, but obviously that would not make sense. What it does do is partially address the list of Rohan weaknesses I mentioned earlier:

• Elves cover the Fight Value issue superbly. F5 outfights most enemy troops and even threatens  a good number of heroes. With Elven Blades also, it tips ties in my favour.
• Whilst not a major boost as it does tie with Throwing Spears, Elf Bows are Str 3 to threaten odd numbered Defences more, and do so at a greater range. Elven Swords are also hand-and-a-half allowing for +1 to wound if needed.
• Elves with shields alongside Royal Guard can be D6, to give the battleline that important defensive boost. 

Finally, I do like a list with some decent shooting, and DoHD does offer a good amount between the combination of Elf Bows, Rohan Bows and Throwing Spears, plus Legolas, Haldir, Aldor and King's Huntsmen as hero options. It would be a bit of a trap to lean too heavily into shooting with this list I think, but I ignoring it would be equally silly.

,

So let's break down the options the list gives before we build our final list for the event:

Heroes

Heroes of Legend

Theoden, King of Rohan

Theoden is the list's only "tax" and must be your leader. At 80pts base with the option for a shield (bringing him to D7), that's a fairly low cost start, and for the price you get a fairly normal mid-level hero profile with March and Strike. The former is nice in an all-infantry list, but Strike is likely more of a last-resort option and Theoden is going to be more comfortable chopping through infantry. 

His special rules do elevate him somewhat, Herugrim is a fantastic piece of wargear that auto-wins tied combats rather than going to a roll-off, giving some weight to Heroic Strike. It's important to note that the auto-win is tied to Theoden's personal Fight Value, he can't simply support Aragorn to win at F7 fights, but it is useful nonetheless. Theoden also comes with a 12" Stand Fast paired with his 5+ Courage. Should the army break, he also gives Courage re-rolls within 6" once the army is Broken. This is fantastic for keeping your models in the field, and incentivises keeping Theoden alive to the late game. Not always easy as he does only have 2 Wounds and a single Fate point.

Finally, he confers a Banner re-roll to Haldir if he is within 6", whilst also allowing him to auto-pass Courage tests and re-roll failed To-Wound rolls when making Strikes. More on this when we get to Haldir.

All-in-all, you may be missing Snowmane, but Theoden is a solid support for the list. Keep him safe at the back of the battle-line and manage his fights carefully.

Heroes of Valour

Aragorn (Strider)

We all know how Aragorn works by now. At 165pts he's the most expensive model in the list, but for that cost you're getting one of the most combat-capable characters in the game thanks to his suite of Heroics, F7, free Might points, and hand-and-a-half sword. This incarnation has no wargear options, but comes with Armour by default, bringing him up to a much safer D6.

Free Heroic Marches and Moves are fantastic for the army's mobility throughout the entire game, long outlasting the equivalent from Captains. I also quite rate Heroic Accuracy after playing Grey Company, allowing me better chances at picking-off banners or threatening heroes in the early game. There's also the option to call it to affect Throwing Spears as well, which could be an interesting play.

Oh, and he boosts Haldir in the exact same way Theoden does.

If you've got the points and your meta revolves around similar heroes, he's well worth considering.

Perhaps the absolute best option for leading the charge

Gimli, Son of Gloin

The future Lord of the Glittering Caves is much in the same guise as he is in any other list. 100pts gets you a solid roadblock of a hero, F6, 2-3 attacks with the option of two-handing, Strike and Strength on offence with D8, 2 wounds and 3 Fate should things go south. He's not going to flashy, but I'd argue he's going to be a solid addition to the list, and a worthwhile consideration if you just can't squeeze in Aragorn.

Unfortunately, like those other lists, he's in competition with Legolas and the elf certainly is the flashier option. Useful if you can afford both, as it'll make sure you can almost always get that +1 To Wound bonus for Gimli, but otherwise he's got stiff competition.

Haldir, Galadhrim Captain

Haldir feels almost like an auto-include in the list to me, despite being most obviously yet another piece of competition for Legolas. At 85pts base (optional Elven Cloak) this saves nearly fifteen points in comparison, and whilst you do lose a lot of the ranged threat, Haldir still gets two shots a turn, still has Sharpshooter and still has 3 Might.

All that said, Haldir does fit a different niche better with the Army Rules allowing Haldir to treat both Theoden and Aragorn as a 6" banner that grants him Fearless and re-roll all failed wounds. This turns him into a reliable combat piece in my opinion, F6 with Strike and an Elven Hand-and-a-half weapon makes for a valuable second beater hero to back up Aragorn.

He's going to potentially take less wounds than Legolas would in the same role thanks to being D6 over Leggy's D4/D5 though he does only have a single Fate. Finally, he brings his Final Blow special rule, granting a free S4 hit on every opponent in the combat should he die, all of which can be affected with Might if needs be.

Legolas Greenleaf

An incredibly popular profile this edition, Legolas possibly needs less introduction than even Aragorn does. You're bringing this 100pt Elf (5pts each for Armour or Elven Cloak) if you want to be an absolute menace at range. There's very little in the game that isn't threatened by this guy's shooting, even if you manage to pin him down in combat. He's arguably even more powerful in this list as well, as now he has a 30" range as well.

If you manage to squeeze him in alongside Gimli and you can get the dwarf's kill count up, there's also the chance for a +1 to Wound on those shots as well, effectively making them Strength 5! 

Legolas is going to be a huge consideration in every build of this list, often the first option. He's far from invincible of course, but considering he's likely going to have the support of plenty of other archers, your opponent is going to have a hard time advancing on you intact.

Heroes of Fortitude

Captain of Rohan

The lowly Captain of Rohan isn't without merit. 45pts is incredibly cheap for getting some extra Might into the list, and Might that frees up needing to have Theoden use his on Marches. You can also bump 10 points to boost this guy to D7, making for a decent anchor in your battleline that's not going to go down too easily, even if that F4 is a bit dicey.

They might best on a budget, but don't overlook them entirely.

Galadhrim Captain

Perhaps a straight upgrade to Rohan equivalent, 70pts gets you all the same stuff but packaged in with F6, Elven Weapons and Woodland Creature. They can also bring an Elf Bow if you really want it.

That said, you're probably best just finding the points to bring Haldir instead, who is essentially an "Uber-Captain" and offers so much more. 

Gamling, Captain of Rohan

If Haldir is a straight upgrade to Galadhrim Captains, Gamling is the same for Rohan Captains. If fully kitted out, you do lose a point of Defence, but in exchange you get F5, Bodyguard, Heroic Defence and the ability to lead Royal Guard. Gamling is an easy alternative if you were considering a Captain, but the main reason to consider would be the Royal Standard of Rohan.

40pts for a 6" banner in your all-infantry list is going to be a powerful purchase, especially when some of your battleline is going to be F5 Elves. For that alone it might be worth the cost over bringing both a regular Captain and a Warrior with Banner (76-86pts versus Gamling's 95pts) or simply two Warriors with Banners (62pts). The standard of course does bring the extra bonus of allowing Rohan heroes to ignore Might spent on a roll of a 6. In this list that's at minimum Gamling and Theoden who are going to be likely candidates for calling Marches and Moves consistently.

It's certainly less powerful than it is in purer-Rohan lists, but a consideration nonetheless as Gamling will always be easier to keep alive than a Rohan Warrior.

Minor Heroes

King's Huntsman

Only one option here, and it's from Legacies.  Much of what I said in my Army of Edoras review will remain true here too, but if he has a niche there, it's infinitely less in Defenders of Helm's Deep. Here you've got competition from Haldir, Legolas and Galadhrim Captains. Even Aldor (more on him in a moment) is potentially a better choice, and for half the cost.

For his special rules, only failing In-the-Ways on a 1, and with the potential to regain his two Might points if he kills the right thing is still something unique, but I'd be surprised to see him fielded in anything that isn't 1000pts plus, or if you absolutely insists on packing in as much shooting as possible and already have the two Elf Heroes.

Independent Heroes

Aldor, Rohan Archer

Aldor is one of those Ranger of the North style profiles. For 20pts your essentiallly get a Warrior of Rohan with Bow, boosted with a single point each of Might, Will and Fate. And I think that's perfect for representing minor characters sometimes!

Unlike his Warrior counterparts, Aldor does only have a 5+ Shoot value but he makes up for it with some special rules. Unsteady Nerves means he will always shoot first, even before Heroic Shoot. The potential to kill someone who is themselves calling Heroic Shoot is hilarious, even if it is incredibly unlikely to happen. He also has Lucky Shot that means he must re-roll failed To-Hit and To-Wound rolls when shooting. Even with his low shoot value and Str 2 bow, he's suddenly much more reliable, especially with a Might point to potentially flip a crucial roll.

Aldor is well worth taking in my humble opinion, if only for the whimsy.

Haleth, Son of Hama

The final hero on the list, Haleth represents the young boy Aragorn speaks to on the steps of Helm's Deep before the battle. He is not quite the powerhouse of his name-counterpart in the War of the Rohirrim however, instead being a support hero. Much like Aldor, he's a boosted warrior, though for the 30pts instead, which gets him an 2 Wounds and 2 Fate. He also goes up to 2 Attacks if Aragorn is within 6". 

Should he be in combat, he also boosts the Fight Value of all Rohan Infantry and Aragorn by one if they're within 6". F8 Aragorn, F5 Royal Guard and Captains, F6 Theoden and Gamling. Even the Rohan Warriors are pulling their weight much better at F4. It's certainly a powerful boost, but not without downsides. First, Haleth is Fearful with 6+ Courage, so may not even make it into combat.

Second, he's an F3 warrior with D4. He might not die to a stray arrow, but he will fall quite easily if not protected. You'll want him near Aragorn for the mutual boosts, which will help as he can either join Aragorn's combat or be rescued via Heroic Combat. I'd still probably assign a Royal Guard or an Elf to babysit him though.

I've personally found him tough to squeeze into my lists, so I'm not sure how worth his points he really is, but there's certainly space for him, even if it's just flavour.

Warriors

To support your Heroes, you have Rohan Royal Guard, Warriors of Rohan and Galadhrim Warriors. 

Warriors of Rohan are going to be your mainstay, and you can horde out quite nicely with them. They suffer with F3 and D4/5, plus the limit to Throwing Spears, but remain reliable skirmish infantry. I'd personally get as many Throwing Spears as you can here, an infantry horde will appreciate the support and the option to sit back 8" and pepper your opponent with S3 shots is great option. Don't overlook the Bows either, even though you have Elves, Rohan archers are cheap and can still put on the pressure at up to 30".

Rohan Royal Guard are limited to either Theoden or Gamling's warbands, but that still means you could bring up to 30 of them in the list. They do feel overcosted here however, especially with the Galadhrim, but aren't without merit. They're your only option for Bodyguard, which does have value and are still F4 D6 heavy infantry (with a potential for F5). Just a couple of these guys accompanying Theoden is probably not the worst idea, though it may be best to leave the spears to the standard warriors.

Finally Galadhrim warriors. They're limited to being only 33% of your lists, so you have to be discerning on what wargear you want to bring with them. An Elf with a shield is cheaper than a Royal Guard and fights better, so whilst the temptation is going to be to max out on Elf Bows, sprinkling a few with Shields, Spears, both or neither across your battleline is going to do wonders for your ability to grind out the opponent. Take a mix and you won't be sorry.

Final Round Up

Pros:

 - Good mix of Heroes

 - Flexible troops. 

 - Lots of synergy and auric bonuses.

 - Access to the Three Hunters.

 - Access to F5 troops.

 - Good access to March.

 - Great Ranged potential.

Cons:

 - Heroes compete a little for roles.

 - Theoden isn't the strongest general.

 - Troops limited to S3 (only elves get to two-hand).

 - Royal Guard are overpriced.

 - Battleline is hurt by throwing weapon limitations.

 - No magic or magic resistance (except Aragorn).

 - No cavalry/fast movers.

So, onto my Tournament list. The event is running at 650pts so I think I can fit at least three heroes into the lists. 

Theoden is a given, so it's just a matter of his support. I've gone for a small battleline of Royal Guard supported by Elves with Spear and Shield, giving me high Fight, high Courage, decent defence and Bodyguard. With a banner in support and two skirmish triangles of Rohan Throwing Spears, this should be able to block out a spot and harass an enemy into coming to me.

Next up is Haldir. I mentioned above I feel he is almost an auto-take for his bonuses, so here is. Legolas was considered, but I think I'll have enough shooting and want the hero support for Theoden. Haldir will bring along a trio of Elf archers, who will be shielded in turn by a few Rohan Warriors with shields. I don't expect this warband to be too static, with Haldir and the Rohirrim at least running off to support the combat up-close if I don't need his bow shots. The Elven archers are the prime candidates for objective capture, as they can move freely through woods and still shoot where needed, but it never hurts to have three more F5 combatants if the situation calls for it.

Finally, I'm bringing Aragorn. I seem to be too often faced with the likes of Beorn, Durin and Elessar, so having my own big combat piece seems like a smart move. The fact that his free Might can be freely upping my mobility or directing a cheeky Heroic Accuracy to pick of something important is the cherry on top. Having a second boost aura for Haldir seemed like a good plan too. 

Aragorn will be bringing along two more elves with shields, some more Rohirrim with Throwing Spears, and a trio of Rohan archers. His warband can both bolster the battleline and also offer ranged and skirmishing support nicely. 

Of course, I couldn't just leave it there. With the 20 points freed up from taking Haldir over Legolas, I reckon I had space for a bit of whimsy in the list in the form of Aldor. He'll fit nicely into Theoden's warband ensuring I have bows in all three and an extra body to help keep the King safe (even if it's a Fearful one).

I'm quite happy with this list. I have tried to take as many Throwing Spears as possible as they offer so much flexibility, and also spread Galadhrim around into each warband to ensure that F5 is available. The list has a solid enough battleline when brought together (11 warriors long if needed, not counting heroes), and Aragorn and Haldir can offer the punch it needs. 9 Bow shots (5 being elven) and 9 throwing spears is a respectable amount of shooting as well, and should hopefully be enough to soften up the enemy. I could've gotten more bows, but that feels like a trap in some ways.

33 models also seems like a decent number considering I've got Aragorn and a good number of elite troops taking up a chunk of points, and the list has some good Courage bonuses for keeping it in the lists should things go wrong. It pretty much nails the "five models per 100 points" guidance you hear sometimes, over by a half model.

The overall plan with this list is to get Theoden's warband anchored somewhere defensible and let the bow and spears force the opponent forwards. Haldir can support Theoden and leave Aragorn to hunt down whatever needs killing/fetching/sitting on. With extended Stand Fast and Courage Bonuses, the bow-armed Elves can be safely spread to rear objectives where they can still threaten the opponent with bow fire.

My weakpoint really is Theoden, as he's not the strongest General in the game, especially on foot. It will really depend on what the scenario is for how he fares. Thankfully as well, I know only Game 1 has a chance of facing Grima, as that will be against an LotR-era Evil army. The other games will be against the respective Hobbit lists and an LotR Good list. 

Really, I expect any fight to be a grind, and it will just be case of whether or not the early shooting can give me an advantage. I'm hoping my lessons from playing Grey Company will apply here in kind, with patient manoeuvring and focused shooting carrying the day. Hopefully I can get some test games in before the end of June.

Thank you for your time once again. If you like what I do here, you can also follow my hobby progress via Instagram, where I can be found at @Manic.Hobbying. In any case, just your support being here is greatly appreciated, and I hope to see you again.

Until next time! 

The Power of the Disengage - Why I'm losing games

It's probably quite obvious on this blog, but I'm quite the fan of Rohan and its cavalry forces. It was likely witnessing the Ride of Rohirrim at Pelennor in my formative years, and it's a very common story for a lot of players. Now, Rohan in the latest edition struggles to properly recreate that moment on the tabletop, but with luck, canny hero usage and good timing for the charge and use of Army Rules, you can get some fantastic results with the Riders of Rohan charging through some Orcs.

In general practice though, Rohan excels much more as a skirmishing force, as many of us know well. Throwing Spears and Bows on cavalry makes for a tough force to pin down without taking casualties, and they are able to kite and still cause damage. When coupled with the likes of Eomer, Theodred or Helm Hammerhand coming crashing through your lines with a few Royal Guard, you have an effective list for frustrating your foe and keeping the initiative, assuming you have the skills.

This is my failing in recent games however. Using Riders of Eomer within a Doubles tournament and a Rohan-cavalry-heavy Realms of Men list in a practice game, I have noticed an unfortunate trend in my piloting of cavalry. I get tunnel-visioned into the charge, quite often re-charging a battleline and leaving myself open to counter-charge. I've gotten better and leaving that relief force behind for a second-turn charge, but there's still issues with how I'm playing. Let's get into it.

The Doubles Tournament

This tournament back in April was my girlfriend's first real look at competitive MESBG. I've corrupted her thoroughly with a love for The Lord of the Rings (that latent nerdiness hit hard), so when she found she enjoyed the game after a few home practice matches, it was great to have her volunteer to accompany me to a Doubles event. If you've read the previous post on building an Ent, I went into this a little there.

Our Alliance in force, ready to take the fight to the White Wizard

So how did the event go?  I was outwardly confident, particularly due to the power of the Ents and free Heroics on Eomer. Three games across a single day with two 400pt lists using the Doubles scenarios from the Matched Play guide, and the final result was 1 Win, 2 Losses. We both had a tonne of fun, and the first two games were thrilling for different reasons, but by the third tiredness was setting in and a difficult game definitely left us disheartened.

The issue I believe was actually how I personally played my cavalry. Let's break it down.

Game 1 was against a Khazad Dum-Riders of Eomer alliance. My intention had been to try and focus down the opposing cavalry and support the Ents against the large group of Hearthguard dwarves. The high defence coupled with F5 and Burly just wasn't a prime target for my Riders. Deployment however put this very group of Dwarves right in front of Eomer, and so I tunnel-visioned right at them. The initial charge went ok, but I was ahead of the Ents and they were at least two turns away from supporting me, though rocks were flying in from the Ash Ent and hobbits. Erkenbrand's warband was also off to the far side offering fire support, which did to a semi-decent job of keeping part of the opposing cavalry back for fear of losing horses.

The smart move would've been to drop back after that first turn, take some pot shots, then charge back in once the Ents were in combat support range. Instead I stayed in close, and got counter-charged by the opposing Eomer. He Heroic Combated through a couple of Riders and my banner, and took part in killing his counter-part alongside Durin. This left the Ents vulnerable to being outnumbered, and whilst they did acquit themselves well particularly with Hurls keeping the enemy heroes on their backs, the Oak Ent eventually fell allowing for our force to count as Broken. Unlucky rolling on the Ent's special Brutal Power also left us one short on a VP goal to get a draw.

It might not sound like it, but the game was actually fairly close and tactically interesting. Our opponents were also both fun players and I believe we gave them our Most Sporting vote. 

Game 2 was against the event's ringer, Dale Groves. Always a good lad to play against, he was incredibly helpful and welcoming, recognising my girlfriend as a newcomer. His Gundabad list looked scary but luck with combats, Gabii's love for Hurl's and some helpful pointers from Dale himself saw us tear through the Berserkers, and even take down Azog and the Troll Brute quite efficiently. 

The difference here is clear in hindsight. Deployment saw the Ents in the centre with my cavalry at the back of the board. This meant the Ents were first into combat and my Cavalry could support them as I'd always intended whilst building the list, guarding the flanks and grabbing objectives whilst being a threat with their bows.

If only I'd remembered that lesson.

Game 3 was against a Reclamation of Osgiliath-Khazad Dum alliance. It promised to be as tough as it sounds, a bucket-load of high Defence models led by Boromir and yet another Durin. A river down the centre and a split deployment could've been a challenge, but we were able to ford the river with the Ents and reunite with our full might to bear on the Dwarves, leaving the Gondorians to run for several turns and get bottlenecked at the river.

It should've been so easy, and my initial charge tore through a good number of dwarves to keep them pinned in. The failure came in the follow-up again of course, not utilising Hit-and-Run tactics against a much slower force and ultimately I even ended up blocking out Treebeard, one of our most powerful combat pieces. He spent far too many turns behind Eomer and the Oak Ent, unable to help except with thrown stones.  Boromir got into play as well, despite us shooting out his horse. In getting overly focused on having Eomer trying to protect the Oak Ent with his Heroic Strikes against Boromir, I ultimately lost my leader again, and Treebeard failed to get into the fight until late in the game. 

We were ground down by the troops and lost simply due to lost initiative. The cavalry wasn't charging, the Ents weren't Hurling and our most mobile troops were little more than roadblocks instead of support. It left a sour taste in the mouth, simply for my choices essentially outplaying our own army.

A lot to learn, and realistically I just need to take a step back once I commit my cavalry. Had I faded back in both Game 1 and Game 3, the story could've been much different.

Easier said then done...

Realms of Men Practice Game

For this game, I was testing out the idea of running Realms of Men at an upcoming Teams event, and essentially built a list that was "Fields of Celebrant at home".

With this list I wanted to match a decent Gondorian battleline with the power of F5 cavalry, needing a Rohan General to give that bonus to the Royal Guard. On paper it's pretty good, with a lot of options for controlling the battlefield. A solid defensive battleline bolstered by two F6 Strike Heroes, a contingent of shock cavalry that can skirmish, scouts, light infantry and decent bow line and in particular a Bolt Thrower constricting enemy movement.

I went up against fellow Brumdabad team member Matt, who had brought along his Host of the Dragon Emperor list, featuring Rutabi. With the scenario being Stake a Claim, my cavalry should allow me to get early fortification points and it does, especially with Matt skirting terrain to avoid being targeted by the Bolt Thrower. 

Where it goes wrong is the right-flank. Rutabi's warband is small, but not enough to ignore. I could either cede the flank to her and risk bow-fire in the back, consolidating my forces against the Emperor, or go for a swift kill. With the combo of a pike-support Knight of the White Tower and my Rohan King, it's certainly doable to take down the Easterling Hero. 

A winnable fight, if managed well.

It doesn't go that way, I missed that the flank had enough space for the War Drakes to get around, meaning the Rohan King would only split the combat, and then he goes and whiffs the Heroic Combat anyway. Worse, the risk goes against me even further, as on the following turn, whilst I am able to win a Heroic Move off, it turns out that I had in fact blocked my King in with the Banner. I am able to charge and bring in Royal Guard reinforcements, but not being able to tactically retreat sees a good portion of my cavalry pinned in unequal fights. 

Rutabi ultimately brings down both the Knight and my King. I do lose the game in the end, though the Fortification points are fairly equal. Notably I also misplayed the Gondorian battleline on this one, again tunnel-visioning on getting into combat. Had I instead moved to the right, it would've forced the Emperors warband to cross open field to engage me, leaving the his flank open to the Bolt Thrower.

I should really get my eyesight checked.

Lessons Learned

So the takeaways from all this, aside from needing to step-back and see the bigger picture.

First: All the timing and positioning in the world won't help a good cavalry charge if you just get bogged down with it in the following turns. I've already learned the relief-force method, and that helps, but I need to recognise when to disengage, especially with Rohan cavalry who struggle with their statline but can still cause damage at range. I've spent too much time cycle-charging cavalry units in Total War not to understand this.

Second: Escape and reinforcement avenues. It's all well and good getting off a good charge if I then block off elite infantry or monsters from getting into help as well. Cavalry is there to make the hole, the infantry (or Ent) is there to plug it! 

Similarly, not blocking in my heroes. MESBG is 100% a game about mobility, and the Heroic Move is one of the core facets of that. Whilst the banners and backup needs to be close, if the the Hero can't move back, he can only go forwards, often into two, three or even four enemy infantry looking to kill him on the opponent's Move Phase.

Third: Perhaps don't fight if I don't have to. Many scenarios have objectives and rushing those, perhaps to take off the token defenders my opponent has left, is often more of use than charging headlong into a fight. Perhaps engaging in a slightly different location gives some penalties to my opponent, like a siege engine shooting into their flank, or bottle-necking Gondorians at a river ford.

What else do you recommend, oh dear armchair generals? 

With the next event coming up, I'll be pivoting back to Defenders of Helm's Deep, so these lessons will be a little less of use for that particular set of games, but not without merit. We'll have to keep them in mind for when I next run cavalry, whenever that may be.

Thank you for your time once again. If you like what I do here, you can also follow my hobby progress via Instagram, where I can be found at @Manic.Hobbying. In any case, just your support being here is greatly appreciated, and I hope to see you again.

Until next time! 

Theorycrafting - All-Cavalry Army of the White Hand

We all do it, theory-crafting different lists at various points levels just to see what we can do. Often these lists are just for fun or theme and are unlikely to be competitive, but they can sometimes be a hidden gem to keep the game fresh and run something unexpected and different.

All-Cavalry Army of the White Hand

Yeah, I know, Wolves of Isengard is right there, but that list is limited in its profile selection, and Army of the White Hand offers everything WoI does (with the exception of Sharku and mounted Captains) and a few more options besides. Don't get me wrong, I think WoI is great, it can field a fairly high number of cavalry models and Sharku got a rather nice boost in this edition. If he'd been available in other lists as well, I reckon we'd have seen him more, as he'd only lose the free Heroic Combats.

Going to need more than just this handful of Warg Riders to run this list!

Enough about that however, this here is a White Hand list. The first and primary draw for using AotWH is Saruman. He of course can bring a horse to fit the full cavalry theme, and not only gives the list a big magical boost (much above WoI's, even though it did get Shamans), he also brings the incredibly useful list specific spells; Conjure Lightning, Summon Gale and Call Thunder.

All three are incredibly useful for a cavalry list in my opinion. Call Lightning's power is well known, and the chance to take out a few enemy models early on to level the numbers disparity you're likely to have cannot be overlooked. Even if the opponent spreads out to avoid you taking out too many troops, you can still target a banner, wound a hero/general or knock out siege crew, all key targets that can level the playing field or gain you an advantage and key VPs.

Then there's Summon Gale, which quite simply halves the opponents movement for a turn. When you already likely have the speed advantage as all cavalry, this is doubly powerful. You can much more easily set up a key charge, by preventing an opponents own charge or them escaping from your range. In the turn after a charge, or perhaps if you moved first, you may be able to prevent counter charges. As the ability is activated when Saruman himself activates, there is scope for him to call a Heroic Move from a distant spot and fire off the Gale to protect your charging cavalry elsewhere. The opponent is unlikely to counter Move in these cases, as Saruman may be too far away to actually affect the battlelines they would not see it coming.

And of course, in the race to objectives or board edges you vastly outpace your opponent when they have to spend a turn crawling at half speed. 

Finally, Call Thunder does a lot for preventing counter-charges as well, making charging when you win priority much safer to pull off. A one-two punch of Call Thunder and Summon Gale could see your cavalry completely smash through enemy lines without much resistance as the opponent either can't reach your or fails to charge at all.

All this without getting into his normal suite of spells, Palantir, +1 Courage aura or Saruman's Deceit ability. It's crazy how good Saruman is, making it doubly important to keep him protected as he is undoubtedly the core of the list.

My poor 20+ year old Saruman (from the BGiME mags) needs some TLC

Supporting Saruman of course there are Isengard Orc Shamans. Naturally being able to be mounted on Wargs, they're likely to see a place in the list, and they do what Shamans always do; cast Fury so your Orcs are able to charge into Terror or stick around when the army is broken. This is pretty handy in a list where the majority of your troops will be Warg Riders (ie. Isengard Orcs) and they aren't exactly known for being courageous.

Isengard Shamans do also have the standard Transfix as well, a damn good candidate for Channelling when you absolutely have to stop a rampaging enemy hero. It's likely to force out Will points to resist as well when cast at the right time, allowing you to follow up with Saruman's magic to increase the chances of it going off.

Their signature spell is Enrage Beast, which always felt like an interesting choice in Isengard lists, but you do have plentiful access to Wargs and of course Crebain. This latter is likely to be the usual target for raging out, F4, S4 and four attacks is good for dealing a quick bunch of wounds to troops or potentially even a transfixed hero, but in this list outside the fight value, your cavalry is already doing 4 S4 attacks against infantry so it's not really a gain unless you need the Fight Value or are facing something that can't be knocked down. There is also the potential to Enrage Wargs themselves, which is much more interesting. That riderless Warg that stuck around is suddenly F5, with 3 S6 attacks and can do some real damage to whichever unsuspecting warrior or hero that thought it an easy target.

Shame that the Warg then dies at the end of the turn, but it'd be a fun surprise to drop on your opponent.

So that's the magical might of the list clear, how about physical? Without Sharku, the only mounted martial hero in the list is Thrydan Wolfsbane. He's fairly decent mid-tier hero, but won't be hurting your opponent's heroes without support from Saruman or Shamans. F5 is middling, even though he does have access to Strike, and D5 with 2W and 2F means he won't be able to take many hits either. The selling point for him is the 2 S5 attacks with Mighty Blow, which when mounted can jump to 6 strikes and a potential 12 wounds. Coupled with Heroic Strength if you ever feel you need it, if this guy is able to hit he's going to feel very much like Helm Hammerhand has come to town.

Thrydan Wolfsbane, hits like a truck, but not necessarily built like one.

He's got 3 Might for Moves or Combats if you need them, so you'll really want him smashing through enemy troops as he'll quickly decimate enemy battlelines so long as you avoid letting him get overwhelmed.

His 12" Stand Fast is really the cherry on the cake also, supplementing your Fury if you brought it, but best of all doubling up with Saruman's own Stand Fast for some impressive coverage.

So that's the Heroes, how about the troops? Going all cavalry, you've really only got two options; Warg Riders and Dunlending Horsemen (though an argument could be made for including a couple of swarms of Crebain, as they're just too damn good).

On the surface, the two options are functionally the same as both are F3, S4, D5 cavalry, and both cost 12 points, with only Throwing Spear and Shield armed Warg Riders costing more. Warg Riders bring your ranged options if you want them, bows and throwing spears, plus the potential for the mounts to stick around. They also benefit from Fury and Enrage Beast. Dunlending Horsemen have no wargear options, and instead get to re-roll wounds against mounts, which is situationally useful, and boast a slightly higher Intelligence and Courage score.

I don't think there's enough to focus on the Dunlendings over the Warg Riders. The Orcs are just much more tactically flexible, and the potential for the Warg sticking around is just a great boon. I would certainly always try to include a couple of Dunlendings however, there are some mounts that do just need to die and it may be difficult for you to remove the rider. More importantly the higher courage and intelligence stats on them make them the best choices for securing objectives, especially with Saruman in sight providing an extra +1 bonus to Courage tests.

So, are there weakenesses to this list? Well of course. Firstly, being an all-Cav army, it's going to have low numbers even with the relatively cost-efficient Warg Riders making up the bulk of the list. Expect to be outnumbered, but your speed, range and Army Bonuses can mitigate this.

Second, you lack a real power combat hero. The combination of Saruman and Thrydan can emulate this somewhat, but directly opposing Aragorn, Gil-Galad or the Balrog is going to take some finesse. Your magic really needs to be working for you against these threats, and you should be focused on removing their support.

Third, no March. Saruman, Thrydan and Shaman lack Heroic March, which could matter in certain match-ups or situations. That said, we covered the speed advantages this list will have earlier, so it's less of an issue here than in other lists.

Finally, whilst your core troops are fantastic for their points, they are limited to F3 and D4-5 with no way to boost these even temporarily outside of casting Enrage Beast on Wargs. You have no banners either, so you're gonna be heavily reliant on outrolling your opponent to win fights in an awful lot of matchups. As previously mentioned though, you will likely have the mobility advantage that you can use to skirmish with throwing spears and bows before ganging up 2-1 or more to ensure you have the dice advantage. Your Crebain, if you take them, are great for getting extra attacks into a fight and the traps they can facilitate can really ensure those Str 4 hits do what they need to do.

This is how I'd build list at a glance. One each of the three hero options gives me all the tricks, though 7 Might isn't great (give Captains back their Wargs GW!). Add in a smattering of Crebain to act as roadblocks, give even more mobility options and act as Saruman's eyes. Finally, it nicely adds up that you can fit a clean half dozen cavalry into each warband, with just short of the maximum number for bows and throwing spears (though you could swap some wargear around to get them maxed and probably should).

24 models is low, but you've got the range, speed and magic to really hem the opponent in. 12 shots a turn, even at 6s to hit (assuming you're moving) will still average out to a wound most turns. Canny use of cover will allow you to get in close and threaten enemy archers, potentially giving you the ranged advantage early on. Even more so if you targeted them for a Lightning Strike!

I think I could keep going on and on, but let's just leave it here. I would love to get this list onto the table and see how it can perform.

 

Thank you for your time once again. If you like what I do here, you can also follow my hobby progress via Instagram, where I can be found at @Manic.Hobbying. In any case, just your support being here is greatly appreciated, and I hope to see you again.

Until next time! 

 

Ghostly Reinforcements - How the spirits of MESBG play

s mentioned in previous posts, my focus this year is to build off of the core of troops I've built for various factions to increase the options available to me in various lists, adding new tricks and strategies. For the first batch, I've gone with some of the spirit models of MESBG, and we'll start with perhaps the simplest...

 

The Army of the Dead 

 

The dead men of Dunharrow got a bit of a glow up in the new edition, namely with that 8" movement rate. With the Spectral Walk ability supporting this, allowing them to never be slowed by Difficult Terrain and auto-pass Climb, Jump, Leap and Swim as if they'd rolled sixes, they are some of the most maneoverable troops in the game. Depending on the terrain, they can arguably out-move cavalry, something you only really otherwise see from Uruk-hai scouts or flying creatures.

Whilst they are only F3 base (boosted to F4 rarely), their speed, Terror and D7 (D8 with Shield) really allow them to pick and choose their fights and survive bad situations much better than anything outside of Dwarves. Where they do win, expect them to do damage as well, with Blades of the Dead allowing them to attack the Courage value rather than the (usually higher) Defence value. Assuming you aren't facing pjama elves (who outfight the Dead and actually have higher Defence against them), you should have a good chance of winning any infantry grind, even with your likely lower numbers.

In any list they are present (Defenders of the Pelennor and Return of the King) they will also always be accompanied by at least one of the Three Hunters and/or the King of the Dead, offering a wonderful boost where they'll often be the anvil to the heroes' hammer. 

In Return of the King, the Dead are your entire force both mounted and on foot. They will support the heroes perhaps more than the other way around though, with movement, high defence and Terror allowing them to be a strong screening force for letting the tag team of Aragorn and the King of the Dead to put pressure where they needs to and avoid being surrounded. At the same time, they can quickly and efficiently get to objectives or board edges without even needing March in a lot of cases.

For supporting the Dead themselves, in Pelennor they can be joined by F4 troops from Gondor, various cavalry options for the knockdown, and ranged firepower with various bows, throwing weapons and even siege weapons. There's also the option of Gandalf the White for magical support. In this list, the Dead will often be either your shock troops or a core part of your battleline, albeit an expensive one that has to compete with Gondor troops for the role.

Pelennor is also the only way to run a pure Dunharrow list, should you want to.

That latter list is where I will be using them. I'm only painting up 7 for now, but at 14pts a pop (15 with the shield) that's at least 100pts already, with the added tax of needed Legolas, Gimli or the King at minimum to field them (all 100pts base) it's a decent investment to field them. They will work well as a strike force for my Pelennor lists, which are currently a mix of Rohan Cavalry, Gondor shieldwalls and a smattering of support pieces such as Lossarnach Axemen and a single Bolt Thrower.

For the painting, I went with a light grey primer, then picked out the metals with Vallejo's Natural Steel. Everything was washed with a Citadel's Biel-Tan Green Shade.

 

Spectres

Spectres are the perhaps the closest match Evil Armies have the the Army of the Dead, but one that trades combat ability for support ability.

They match the Dead with the Spectral Walk, Terror and S3 Blades of the Dead abilities, which is nice, but move slower at 6" and are F2 and D6, one point less in each of these stats and with no option for a shield (or any other wargear for that matter). Costing the same as a Warrior of the Dead with a Shield, that's not exactly something you want to field as your main battleline.

Instead, the Spectres strength is in its A Fell Light is in Them ability. In the move phase each Spectre can force any single model it can see within 12" to pass an Intelligence test or be forced to make its full move towards the Spectre. There are some limitations to this, such as the move cannot be used to directly cause damage by falling or Charge into combat (except against the Spectre, should you wish it), but it remains a powerful ability.

Spectres can pull models out of formation, perhaps ruining a Shieldwall defence bonus, preventing shooting or even simply allowing your own troops to mob up and surround one of the opponent's warriors away from the battleline. You can pull a banner bearer out of position, or an objective holder into a trap.

Of course, it can always fail, especially if the opponent has high Intelligence stats (especially the case with heroes), but 2 or 3 Spectres could all target the same model and through sheer pressure of dice, move them forwards and cause disruption in the opponent's formation that you can capitalise on.

I've just built one for now, the base model being a Wood Elf warrior with an arm from the Mirkwood Rangers sprue, a spare sword and a mix of cuts and greenstuff to ruin the clothing. Painting was done in the same fashion as the Dead above, but I chose to include a Reikland Fleshshade wash on the areas of skin. It's a sublte different but I like it.

I'll be definitely adding more Spectres to my armies, as I feel they are key parts of the Angmar and Minas Morgul lists. I plan to run the former more often, as I already have a decent number of Orcs and Carn Dum warriors that can really benefit from some movement shenanigans.

 

 Shade  

 

The final new addition I have for this batch is the Shade. Unlike the previous profiles, this one is a Hero, but still shares the trifecta of Spectral Walk, Terror and Blades of the Dead. Like it's compatriot the Spectre, it is certainly not a combat piece, F1 and S1 don't go very far even with 2 Attacks. It is at least survivable, sporting D8, a healthy 3 Wounds and even a single Fate point.

Instead, the Shade is firmly a Support Hero, with three abilities for helping your list.

Starting with Conduit of Angmar, the Shade can be used as the casting point and Line-of-Sight for any Ringwraith's magic, similar to Crebain for Saruman. This goes further as well, where if the Wraith happens to be within 6" of the Shade, they can cause a Wound to add a one to their Casting Roll. The first half of this roll is lovely and really helps keep the magical oppression going on your opponent, as it's tough to hide from multiple angles. The second half is likely to be rarely used outside of key moments where a spell could win or lose games, but should be remembered, even if it costs you the Shade itself.

Swirling Mists is a lesser version of Blinding Light (perhaps more akin to Khazad-Dum's mirrors), and inflicts a -1 penalty to shooting attacks on models with 6" of the Shade at the cost of one of its 4 points of Will. Very useful when your lists typically comprise in majority of D4 and D5 Orcs. As an added bonus, if your Shade happens to be within 12" of the shooter it becomes a -2 penalty instead, favouring an up-close playstyle.

Finally, the Shade has Ghostly Resolve, a passive ability that gives all friendly Angmar Orcs within 12" a +1 to Courage Tests. With Orcs being as famously cowardly as they are, this at least brings them up to being on par with most Man warrior profiles and will help in those cases where the opponent also has some Terror.

These three abilities are great of course, but that's not where the fun ends. Being a Spirit Hero, it will usually provide the Terror rule to Angmar Orcs within 3" and it also has Dominant 3. These rules and it's defensive stats all come together to help make the Shade and its warband a decent enough speedbump for holding objectives. It's a solid Hero for just 75pts and I look forward to taking one in a Host of the Witch King list some point soon.

I quite like GW's official model, but ever on a budget I settled instead for building my own using some Age of Sigmar ghosts (nighthaunts?) that I picked a sprue of by random a few years back. I fused two of these together with a bit of greenstuff, removing the scythe-hands and replacing them with simple hand weapons from the Vitrix Vikings sprue. Once again, I used the same painting style.

 

Where are the Barrow Wights?

Whilst there are more Spirit models in the MESBG range, most of the rest of them are Ringwraiths and they are kind of their own beasts. The last proper ghost model is the Barrow Wight, which I've not included here. This is partly because I don't have any of the official models and have had no real ideas on how to properly represent them with the parts I have on hand. They will have to wait for a later date to join my forces. 

They are still a useful part of any Angmar list, and sport the wildly useful Paralyse Magical Power. This is one of those more controversial abilities in MESBG, especially when used en-masse, but not one that cannot be played around or countered, especially with the tiny 6" casting range. Still, that's not for a deep discussion now.

 

Thank you for your time once again. If you like what I do here, you can also follow my hobby progress via Instagram, where I can be found at @Manic.Hobbying, or you can support me via the KoFi link off to the side. In any case, just your support being here is greatly appreciated, and I hope to see you again.

Until next time! 

  

  

A Ranger Caught off his Guard 2026

It's been officially a full year since my first MESBG tournament experience, and I've returned once again to that very event; Board in Brum's A Ranger Caught off his Guard. If you haven't seen last year's post (Read here), or just don't remember, the format is very simple. Five games at 395pts, with a minimum model cap of 3 and a maximum of 40.

The points level was chosen quite simply to reflect the Road to Rivendell list mirroring the scene in which the tournament's title is spoken. Aragorn, Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin, alongside Arwen riding Asfaloth, clocks in at a 395pts.

Last year I took a Riders of Theoden list, headed by Theoden and Eomer. I struggled to get much in the way of success, but learned a lot. This year, after a rather successful 7th place result at A Pull of the Old Toby with the Grey Company, I figured I would take the Rangers again and see if I could not replicate the success. 

The List

The Grey Company is an elite list. At the previous event I'd crammed Aragorn and Legolas and 8 Rangers into 500pts, with a few bits of equipment dotted around. The 105pts difference was going to really hurt my numbers...

Seven models is incredibly low. I expected to be outnumbered in any case, especially packing two named heroes into the list, but with an average model count for the event of 21, I would later end up being outnumbered 3-1 and even 4-1. The Elven cloaks were a must for ensuring Aragorn and Legolas could act without being overly impeded, especially as neither could take armour (as Aragorn can't and I couldn't afford Leggy's). It was also a shame I couldn't spring for Aragorn's bow, but with some consideration and looking at the expected scenarios, I needed him either marching for objectives or otherwise chopping things up with Anduril.

Spears I was happy to do without, especially at these numbers, but I did miss the armour on my Rangers a little bit, as there were a number of occasions the extra Defence would have saved a wound. It can really be a pricey investment in most Ranger lists, and the extra body (and Might) is usually better, but I always slot in a few bits of armour if the points allow, just to avoid that Str 4 where I can.

The Scenarios

Once list submission was complete, the TO's released which scenarios we would be playing. This was nice as I was able to familiarise myself with each one and prep a little game plan for each. It would be match-up dependant of course, but having a couple of ideas of how to deploy and move in the early turns pre-loaded the thinking for the games. It also helped me keep the Scoring Objectives in mind, something I can forget in the thick of things. 

Round 1 - Lead from the Front
Round 2 - Divide and Conquer
Round 3 - Destroy the Supplies
Round 4 - Conquest of Champions
Round 5 - Capture and Control

Four objective based scenarios. Two with random endings on a Break. No Maelstrom. 

It felt like a fairly hero-centric day, which on the surface felt good with a full hero list. But we'd have to see how my planning survived first contact.

 

Round 1 - Edd Quick's The Last Alliance

Edd was a lovely chap and a newcomer to the venue. He'd brought Isildur and Erestor with a mixed Elf-Numenorean battleline and a small cadre of Elven Bowmen. The army looked lovely with a nice lava-riddled basing scheme and display board. (Sorry for no photos on this report, I completely forgot!)

The early game was entirely shaped around us fearing each other's archery. Five Elf Bows vs Legolas and five ranger bows. Using buildings as cover, I advanced a Ranger up each side at half-pace, with Aragorn leading a small group up the left-side centre. Legolas took up a spot on a balcony, but would be unable to get a shot for 3 or 4 turns. Isildur led the majority of the battleline wide to my right, once again skirting a building completely out of shot, though I was able to fire a few arrows his way, the stilts of the Laketown-style building offered too many In-the-Ways to get much bow fire through.

Arrows caused a couple of casualties on either side, with me heavily relying on In-the-Ways to avoid damage. Eventually the battleline came into view and I was able to start working on my plan, focus-fire the banner, taking pot-shots at Isildur where I could as both would give me VPs. 

The banner would ultimately last right up till the final rounds, including surviving two rounds of combat with Aragorn, who seemingly forgot how Anduril worked. Neither King of Gondor would see combat against each other, only expending Fate to avoid wounds, and I think we were both concerned about how that fight could go badly for us.

Eventually, Isildur would put on the Ring on take the right-hand objective, contested by a Ranger. I held the centre, with Erestor and a Ranger contesting the left. A tie for objective points

The final score was 9-6, owing to me quartering his list down to just the two heroes and an archer or two, and killing the banner to grant us both the 2VPs there.

A fun game that I actually wonder how it could've gone had Edd been more aggressive with his battleline, but his concern was valid as I believe I shot out as many of his troops as I slew in combat. An Aragorn-Isildur face of could've been interesting, especially with the Ring, but far too risky for either of us. I do hope we can face each other again in the future.

 

Round 2 - Edward Hodges' Khazad-Dum

The second Ed of the day, Edward is someone I've actually played a number of times at other events and have always lost to his dwarves, including at Old Toby with my Rangers. 

Divide and Conquer was good for me. Ed had a Dwarf King and a Captain, leading some 25 dwarves split between Khazad Guard, Dwarf Warriors and his own, arguably much more deadly Rangers. The deployment would force him to split his force in two, whereas whilst my list was built with four warbands (Aragorn + 2 Rangers, Legolas + 1 Ranger and two solo drops), the army rules gave me the option to deploy as a single warband.

I considered splitting so that the two solo drops were on the far side of the board, but opted instead to consolidate my position. The game had a chance to end on a Break, and the objectives rewarded taking and holding the centre. Being outnumbered 3-1 by dwarves, I kept my plan simple. Aragorn would take some Rangers and rush towards the Captain, whilst Legolas would try to snipe out the King's own Dwarf Rangers, trying to get them before they got into range of the more centrally deployed mirrors. If I got the chance, I would try to shoot his King as well. I'd worked out that if I could wipe the Captain's warband, I'd only need to kill a few of the King's warband to break him, and the smaller warband would be much easier to deal with.

Running up on some terrain, Aragorn's team avoided bowfire whilst also trading the odd arrow. Eventually they got stuck in a slowly ground through dwarves, with the Captain giving Aragorn a wide berth, especially as he'd spent all of his Might on Marches. Legolas succeeded in removing most of the dangerous longbows with a Ranger's support, though had to keep backing up as several dwarves were trying to hunt him down.

Eventually I broke him and started maneouvering to grab objectives whilst Aragorn tried to run at the King. His Captain pounced on a Ranger, almost coming unstuck in one round as I rolled doubled 6's to wound, saved only by Fate, and angrily struck down his opponent the following turn. Legolas had lost his Ranger pal also, but between them had taken out the Khazad's, only for him to lose every fight against the Dwarf Warrior remaining. 

The game ended as expected before I could get to the King. The scores totted up to an extremely close 6-5, and on reflection it was a matter of the Captain being a mere half inch out of range of contesting an objective, and one of my Rangers passing a Fate roll either of which would have called it a draw, and both flipping the score in Ed's favour.

Always a fun person to play against, and I look forwards to hopefully evening up our relative win-loss ratio at future events.

 

Round 3 - Matthew Hare's Halls of Thranduil

Destroy the Supplies was perhaps my least anticipated scenario for the entire day. I lacked the model count to sufficiently defend my objectives as well as target my opponents and realistically had to just try and trade out. Matthew's list had both the Elk and three cavalry though so I would be heavily outmatched in terms of speed. 

Naturally the game started with the elves doing their level-best to avoid being shot at, whilst I tried to manoeuvre to target the horses and Thranduil himself. With a large ruin offering a lot of cover, he was able to push his battleline forwards, though thankfully not without casualty. He flanked me with two cavalry, and although with some luck I was able to dispatch them with the lone guard Ranger, he was still able to destroy my supply on the the right-flank.

When combat was joined, Aragorn yet again got stuck in, with Thranduil skirting the melee and picking off Rangers whilst Legolas tried desperately wound his dad or his mount with PinPoint shots, but failed to make an impact.

Eventually, the superior numbers and mobility of the Elves won out, and he completely destroyed all of my supplies. Aragorn made a break for one of his supplies, with Heroic Combats, but was a full turn away when one of my Rangers decided he'd had enough of the multi-turn melee he was in and took out the two Palace Guard with a double 6 roll, quartering them and ending the game before Aragorn could get where he needed to be.

This was my first loss, 3-11. My only points came from breaking his army and him not having a banner, and with 3 supplies destroyed to zero, a clear loss. I always like to analyse my losses to understand what I could've done better and I do wonder if it was simply more of a deployment issue. Feinting left with a solo Ranger and deploying on the right would have given me much more clear firing lines, and I had the advantage in firepower as his list only had a Sentinel and a single Mirkwood Ranger in it for range. I'd have still needed to give up perhaps two objectives, but may have been able to draw Thranduil and his cavalry out earlier. 

Ifs and buts, and lessons learned. Matthew would later go on take 3rd place in the overall tournament, so I'll take it on the chin losing to a solid player. Well done to him!

 

Game 4 - Jack Buckler's Army of Thror

Hot off of the FAQ presses, Jack had bought the Army of Thror with it's new 50% throwing weapon limit. Contest of Champions is definitely Aragorn's chance to shine, but with the deployment forcing us to be close and the dwarves outnumbering me 2-1, this would be a struggle. Jack is another player I've faced before, where I'd take a close win against his Radagast's Alliance by utterly abusing the terrain, so I knew he was another tough player to face.

The game started with an Heroic Move-off, which I believe he won (my memory is getting foggy the day after). The line clashed quickly, and only Legolas and a couple of Rangers avoided turn 1 combat due to being deployed slightly back. We fought between two terrain pieces, which levelled the numbers initially, but several of his dwarves scaled the cliffs to the right and as the battlelines shifted, he began to start enveloping the Grey Company. 

Legolas spent much of the game once again using Pinpoint shots to attempt to avoid traps, whilst my Rangers slowly dropped one by one. In the centre, Aragorn and Thror clashed for multiple turns, Thror surviving a good few turns thanks to poor Wound rolls on my behalf and some great Arkenstone Fate rolls on Jack's. Eventually however, Aragorn remembered how his sword worked again and got a triple wound through.

With the score 1-0 on kills, Aragorn tried his best to boost the score, but was only able to kill one more Grim Hammer before Legolas was taken down and I was left quartered, ending the game.

Final score was 13-3. I don't have much to say about this game tactically, as it was just pure slog fest. Perhaps give room I could've backed off and gotten in a round or two of shooting, but the lines were so close this was unlikely to have scored more than a single wound and may have meant Thror could've gotten into my Rangers instead of Aragorn. The terrain was also helpful as it was, so all I can do is thank my dice and move on to the last round.

 

Round 5 - Dale Groves' Goblin Town

The final round, and I'm riding high, with three wins to my name, despite my low VPs so far, a 4-1 ratio could see me contesting the podium (post tourney I realise it've been a likely 5th place, but still worth pushing for!) Dale, as the TO of the event had to juggle a little bit of his duties with the game early on, but the event is really run well and he was able to focus on the match. Good stuff that he still gets to play!

If I thought I'd been outnumbered before, Dale was about to reteach me the meaning of the word. With the Goblin King, two Captains and 33 goblin warriors, it was the most outnumbered I'd been all day, and the Goblin Town's propensity for surrounding you with hordes was especially dangerous with my own low model count.

I realised early on I'd have to give up and then fight my way to the objectives, but also would need to try and deal with the Goblin King. To this end, I set up in two rough groups, with a solo ranger skirting Weathertop off to my left flank to try for that side's objectives. I ended up having Legolas across from the King and Aragorn across from one of the Captains.

Early game shooting was poor, and the few shots Legolas put into the King were all saved. Very few goblins fell as they skittered over the objectives, and even as I backed away with Legolas' group they kept coming and I soon found every model I had in combat. 

Unfortunately, things continued to go wrong for me. The goblins fell slowly despite their low defences as the dice just did not want to cooperate and a number of times I roll 5 high against sixes and was forced to spend Might just to not have the Grey Company drown in dice. Pinpoint shots continued to bounce off of the King and he took out the Rangers and then finally Legolas through sheer pressure, the Elf Prince never getting a single wound on him.

On the other side, Aragorn's band lasted longer, and mostly chopped up their own goblin horde, but as I broke, with Aragorn and that single flanking Ranger each in position to reach an objective, the random chance to end roll came and I rolled yet another two.

The final score was 16-1, with my sole point coming from breaking the Goblins. That last point could've really turned the tide had there been a turn or two for Courage tests, but alas. Dale took a well deserved win and got a solid fourth place in the tournament overall. It's funny how my two losses for the day were against top 4 players. 

Looking back, I'm trying to think how I could've fought this different. I probably should've sent Aragorn straight at the King, but it would've been tricky to ensure he didn't get surrounded and I didn't want to get into a situation where a bad roll would see him dead. Perhaps overly cautious however. The other thing is my deployment, splitting the horde into three did work out but I do wonder how running as a solid block my have helped to avoid being surrounded. Using the terrain would've really helped and the Weathertop ruins would've been a prime location to defend and stymie their numbers. 

Regardless, I could not have stayed there the whole game, and would've had to wade out to catch the objectives sooner or later.

 

Round Up

At the day's end I sat in 16th position with 3 wins to my name, and I'm very happy with that. Sure there are things I could improve, and that may have resulted in more decisive victories to give me a higher position. Still, whilst I did have the power of Aragorn and Legolas on my side, I was able to take a mere 7 models in a non-meta list to another damn good showing and I'm proud of that.

Biased as I am as it's my local, I will also always recommend Board In Brum's MESBG events, they're well run and the players that show up are a damn good bunch, so check it out if you have the chance.

Next event is the April Doubles event at BiB, Best Bit of the Book, to which I've already aluded to be attending with my girlfriend. Hobby progress on that one soon.

Once again though, thanks for reading. If you want to follow my hobby progress, Instagram is always the best shout where I can be found at @Manic.Hobbying, but for now, take care and catch you next time.

FAQ Feelings and Future Wishes

It's February again and that means one thing for MESBG; FAQ time. With over a year of the new edition, there's been plenty of time for the game developers to gather data and make some balance changes. Going into this, the GBHL marks some clear targets with the lists that are topping the tables and many podiums, or otherwise looming large in many a player's mind, so let's see what we got...

FAQ February 2026

Army of the White Hand

The FAQ targets two of the pain points for opponents of this list; Saruman's Lightning spell and Grima Wormtongue. The former is quite simple, and is tied to the latter. Saruman can't target his lightning within 12" of Grima. Not a bad change, and one that doesn't reduce the potency of the ability. Rather, the player now has to consider positioning a little more, as 12" isn't an unsubstantial radius. The optimum position for the lightning likely does have some overlap with Grima's optimum position.

We may find Grima deploying with his own side much more often now, or conversely much less lightning usage, as the opponent can clump around Wormtongue simply to prevent the lightning. 

Much in the same vein, we've had multiple clarifications on Grima himself. First, for Reconnoitre and Maelstrom deployment, he must pre-select the warband he is joining and move on after that warband has completely moved on. Simple and clear.

He's also had his movement clarified, with how he interacts with control zones and how both he and the opposing forces can move through each other so long as they do not overlap bases at the end of a move, or remain in base contact. This adds a bit to the mind game of playing with and against Grima. Careful planning and spacing could see him blocking key areas of a formation, or alternatively, a canny player could block him from being able to get close enough to use his Wormtongue ability on a specific hero.

Finally, the rule that specified that Grima would no longer be considered "Friendly" when Saruman was slain has took a nerf to instead occur when Saruman takes a unsaved wound. A much simpler task, though smart players are already keeping Saruman safely sequestered in the back line, you can aim to hit with a sneaky arrow or two simply to rid yourself of Grima.

It's a fair bit, and I would say it ultimately increases Grima's skill ceiling whilst also make him much more manageable for an opposing player to deal with. It had long been a thing where he was basically impossible to deal with unless you had magic like of your own, so this is a welcome way to level the playing field without completely neutering Grima. 

Unfortunately, no changes to the Crebain spam, maybe next time...

Dragons

The Dragons saw one simple nerf, and it's a nice one in my opinion. The Breathe Fire ability still does a Str10 Insta-kill hit to the main target, but rather than also doing the same to everything within 2", it now gives them the Set Ablaze status instead. It vastly reduces the sheer power of the attack, but in a way that you'll still want to avoid clumping up. Str 5 hits will still hurt most things on a 4 or a 5+ and that will do so every turn unless you can afford two turns of reduced movement and the risk of being caught prone just to put it out.

A good change I think. Dragons aren't nearly as popular as some of the other options, but they remain devastating without being oppressively so.

Eagles

The other big monsters on the FAQ docket, Eagles have been the big bad boogeymen of MESBG since the new edition launched. No other list has been so consistently ruled against, with many tournaments levelling the points to put them at a disadvantage. The salt this single list has caused in the community is legendary and perhaps slightly overblown, but they were a tough list to beat and the big bird screech ability was the core to this with how it affected the opponent's ability to act.

The Piercing Cry rule has been specified to being those models that activate within 6" of Gwaihir on the turn it was used, and to only prevent charges, not movement entirely. There had been some community confusion as to at what point in Gwaihir's move the cry took affect, so this is a clear state of that now. How this affects the feel of what is still a fairly impactful ability, I'm not sure. It will always feel bad to be locked in place against a hyper-mobile army of monsters, but I wouldn't be surprised if the community continues to regulate the Eagles out of the majority of tournaments, especially with the (quite frankly ridiculous) reaction against players who choose to take them in spite of the restrictions.

It's not the only change to Eagles however, but the other is indirect and we'll get to it in a bit.

Depths of Moria

Perhaps the strongest list in the leagues going right now is the Depths of Moria, almost always being fielded with a Balrog. One of the big reasons for this is the board-wide banner affect from Drums in the Deep. Even with the Balrog's fairly steep points-cost, Moria Goblins are cheap enough to field in a fairly decent horde and were essentially all two-attacks base, vastly improving their combat reliability. The courage bonus didn't hurt either.

With what is perhaps the single biggest nerf in the FAQ, this has gone from a permanent passive ability for the list to a single-turn activatable buff much akin to For Frodo as an example.

On the surface this feels good. The ability completely removed any need for the old Goblin drums in the list and brings the ability very much in line with other lists' abilities. It's still available to the list at a 75pts tax and reduced range as well, which will cut into the horde a little, but retain the feel of the list.

That said, a counterpoint is that it removes the reliability that Goblins did have enough that now the list is much more reliant on the Balrog (and to a lesser extent the Watcher) for list power. 

I will be watching with interest to see if we get a spike of Drum usage or if the list continues to top the tables simple due to the power of Durin's Bane...

Army of Thror

Surprise of surprises the FAQ includes a buff! Whilst the top lists needed addressing, it heartens me to see one of the lesser used lists have something to hopefully bring it closer to the median. It's a small change, but it's something, and the list now can have 50% throwing weapons instead of the typical 33%. Nothing ground-breaking, but I wonder if the new list-building flexibility it affords will see more Thrors on the tables.

Barge

There are a couple of other small changes and clarifications, but the last thing I want to cover is the update to the Barge Brutal Power Attack. This is the other change that affects Eagles. 

Boiling it down, if models are forced to Make Way for models Backing Away from the monster's Barge, they can now move up to 3" in a direction of the monster player's choosing, but must move only the minimum distance required to make the space required, and won't be knocked prone if it is able to do so.

This change really reduces the affects of the Barge, preventing monsters from scattering whole battlelines to the winds, without also stopping them from moving as they want to. This is solidly a good change, and monsters will remain powerful regardless.

Final Thoughts on the FAQ and Wishlisting

Despite the incredibly long wait, I really feel this FAQ hit the sweet spot of subtle yet impactful changes to the meta. Nothing has been absolutely destroyed or neutered, but power has been reduced just enough to have an effect. Hitting four of the biggest threats in the competitive scene has been brilliant. 

My first wish is that it would have been great to see this FAQ's more than twice a year. Even once every three months if this is the scale would perhaps be better, and it's not as if the game designers have to do all the data gathering themselves, as the MESBG community has weekly updates in blogs, videos and tournament stats to pour through and assess. We're unlikely to ever see it, so instead I simply hope that we continue to see FAQs like this one.

Next is that Men of the West and Khazad-Dum seem almost glaring in its omission from being addressed. How either list would be altered (or even if they would be needed) is a whole discussion in itself, but when I think of the top lists, they're up there. Hopefully the changes don't see either list move too clearly into the top spot and instead we see a more balanced spread of podium lists.

Finally, I would like to see more of the changes like what the Army of Thror got. Small little buffs that make the more attractive, or improve list building options. 

My first on that list would be swapping Rohan Throwing Spears from 2pts to 1pt. Whilst they can be used as both throwing weapons and spears, they can never do both in a single turn, and it hugely increases the cost of what are otherwise fairly average troops. It would bring down the cost of Royal Guard, who are fairly overpriced as it is. For Rohan Warriors it makes those foot-battlelines more feasibly priced whilst also perhaps giving them an affordable niche in Men of the West, which let's face it, is essentially the tin-can brigade with maybe the odd Rohan bowman thrown in.

I don't think this would make Rohan a power-list in any circumstance, they're still F3, D5 men in a world of Hatred Men/Rohan and much more F4, but it will be less restricted at least.

The other would be to make Rangers of the North 2A base across the board instead of a just a portion of lists. They're good for what they are, but in a world of Beornings and Werewolves, I don't think being 2A in Defenders of the Pelennor or Arnor is going to be making them overpowered, and they'll feel much more cost-effective.

Let me know what other lists you think need that tiny boost to improve their competitiveness, and what that boost should be. 

Thank you for your time once again. If you like what I do here, you can also follow my hobby progress via Instagram, where I can be found at @Manic.Hobbying.

Until next time!